Even the 1960s and 1970s were a diminished set of opportunities compared to the real heyday of professional live music from about 1920 to 1950.
In those days, there was mass distribution of popular music over the radio and by records, thus making people want more varied musical fare than what they could create in the front room with themselves and a couple neighbors, and performed better - but the reproduction quality wasn't enough to satisfy that desire by itself. Records were three minutes long; radio was often staticy and always constrained by the requirement to advertise and to keep to program lengths, generally 15-30 minutes; so people WANTED to go down to the National Guard Armory or the high school gym and listen and dance to a band of professional musicians playing popular music. In small towns, but also in big cities, the weekend entertainment was basically the one movie at the local movie house, or the band down at the Armory, and you could easily fit both of those into a Saturday night. There was no TV, radio was constrained as I described, records cost money and were constrained.
As a result from about 1920 to 1950, there were thousands of semi-pro bands in all genres, playing every weekend, and sometimes in the week, for dancers, all over the US. Of course "Bill Klein and his Music Makers" out of Ottumwa, or "Buddy Krzxwljwski and the Polka Boys" out of some little town up in Wisconsin, weren't bringing in big bucks like the name bands were, but they WORKED.
The LP, the television, played major parts in the decline of this. Rock and roll's ascendance meant that a lot of musicians still in their 30s suddenly didn't have any product to appeal to teenagers and young adults. The decline of more formal dancing in favor of the free form dancing of rock and roll meant there was less investment in learning how to dance thus less urgency in wanting to exercise what one knew.
The whole business of mid-grade to low-grade professional live music was really coasting down even from the early 60s, but habits die hard. But now there's no one in the young adult category who even has parents who remember the days when going out to dance was a standard weekend entertainment for hundreds of thousands. It's down to a few niches where the consumers themselves keep this idea going. Punk and all its variants, for example. Well, that's fine, but punk as a style is pushing 50 years of age.
It's like bemoaning the decline and near-extinction of the blacksmith. Yes, there are blacksmiths. Yes, those who find the right niche can make good money. But the days when every neighborhood in a large city, or every little hamlet, had a blacksmith shop, are gone.
